P.F. Chang's Rock'N'Roll Half Marathon (Jan 18)

So I tried to go easy on the mtn biking the day prior, but its just so hard to do!

After finishing up at White Tanks we headed back into Phoenix to check into the Buttes. Got that at a smoking price on Priceline. We headed to Monti's for dinner with some other people and then came back where I got everything packed and ready to go for Sunday.

Sunday morning I was up bright (or dark?) and early. I was catching the 6:30 shuttle from the resort to the start line. Got there, walked a bit before finding a port-a-potty without a mile long line. Milled around and figured out which UPS truck I needed to drop my stuff at and then headed over to stretch and watch the full start at 7:30. Hung out on a monument for a good view and tried to take a couple pictures. A little after 8, I stripped off my warm clothes and dropped my bag off and started heading towards the half start line and my corral. I was in corral #17 so I knew I had plenty of time before I could even be close to the start line.

Finally crossed the start sometime after 9am. I tried to keep it slow and discovered quickly I was going to have to readjust the location of my Garmin. Since bringing spare mounting pins for it wasn't on my list, I took 2 safety pins and made a little tether for it which I then pinned to my sports bra and tucked inside it. Well, you couldn't hear the beep when I changed run/walk, vice versa. So finally I had to put it between my top and bra and then just unzip my top if I wanted to look at it. I'm sure spectators loved this.

The first 3 miles were pretty good, nothing exciting, just kind of going with the pace and trying to keep it reasonable. I was on the right side of the road as far as I could be since I was run/walking and didn't want to be in people's way when I hit a walk interval. I think this actually started contributing to some of the ankle pain the cropped up at about 5k. It wasn't terrible, just dull so I kept plodding along. I hit 5k at about 40 mins so I knew I was doing ok. Things started to fall apart after that.

My 10k was 1:18 so I did pick up the pace a little bit. By now it was starting to get hot and I honestly just wanted to be done (at the halfway point!). The ankle pain was starting to migrate to my knee and hip. And still I pushed on.

It took me nearly an hour to do the next 4 miles and I was exhausted. I had only brought some little clif-bar like thing with me so it was all of 110 calories. I took only water at the aid stations so I was dying by this point. I made it through the Tucson half on water and luna moons, but it was also cold and almost all downhill. I think around mile 10 was the small uphill part of the run and it took everything I had to keep my interval in tact. I walked aid stations, but this time my interval had me on a walk about 80% of the aid stations so I got no extra benefit from that.

The last aid station and coming across the Mill Ave bridge was a feeling of FINALLY!! Of course you then turn the corner and realize you still have a ways to go. When I started to turn into the parking lot I tried to pick up the pace a little before realized I hadn't hit the 13 mile sign yet. Bad move. I went back to a walk until I passed that sign and then tried to do something faster than shuffle to the finish. 2:54:45 - not pleasing. But given the conditions, my lack of training (it was even less than Tucson), I'm not terribly upset.

I got my medal, picture and hit the food line only to find out the Popsicles were gone. I had left Erik a note to meet me at the UPS truck but I couldn't find him - and I was past my expected time range. I grabbed my bag and found a curb to change my shoes back to sandals and I realized that my left leg had gone stiff and sitting down was hilarious challenge. Then I started shivering even though it was 80 out. Threw my jacket on and just waited around hoping he'd show up soon. When he finally did, I was salty, tired, very stiff and sore and then I find out he had to park more than a mile away! That was the longest mile of my life because it was mostly a hobble.

Not a fabulous day, but given I'd done about 15 miles of mtn biking the 2 days before, I'm not terribly concerned. Some Honey Bears helped some of the crappy feeling go away!